A utility company’s “franchise fee” was an “unauthorized tax” that violated the Michigan Constitution and, as a result, the utility company could not collect the fee from its customers and then remit the collected fees to the City of East Lansing, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled.

The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that requiring a social worker who abuses a child to report that abuse under the Child Protection Law violates the social worker’s right against self-incrimination.

Sentencing juvenile defendants to life without parole for first-degree murder is “cruel or unusual punishment” in violation of the state Constitution, a divided Michigan Supreme Court has ruled.

Oakland County’s retention of surplus proceeds from tax-foreclosure sales was an unconstitutional taking without just compensation and violated Article 10, § 2 of the MI Constitution.

A police officer did not have the authority to search a backpack belonging to the passenger in a vehicle because the officer did not first obtain the passenger’s consent.